Rihanna shed her tough girl exterior when discussing ex-boyfriend Chris Brown

Rihanna shed her tough girl exterior when discussing ex-boyfriend Chris Brown during an interview with Oprah Winfrey on her television show "Oprah's Next Chapter." The pop star's eyes were welled with tears as she described having conflicting feelings about Brown after he assaulted her in 2009.
"I lost my best friend," Rihanna explained during the emotional conservation filmed in her home country of Barbados. "Like everything I knew was switched. Switched in a night. And I couldn't control that. So I had to deal with that, and that's not easy for me to understand or interpret. And it's not easy to interpret on camera, not with the world watching."
Rihanna breaks down when discussing Chris Brown on "Oprah's Next Chapter."Rihanna said all of the negative attention made it even more difficult to clear her mind. "So it's hard for me to even pay attention to my mind and figuring things out because it now became a circus."

Despite being upset with Brown she also felt a need to support him. "I felt protective," she said. "I felt like the only person they hate right now is him. It was a weird confusing space to be in because to be as angry and as angry and as hurt and betrayed, I just felt like he made that mistake because he needed help, and who's gonna help him? Nobody's gonna say he needs help. Everybody's gonna say he's a monster without looking at the source. I was more concerned about him. "
Rihanna fought back tears during the one-minute teaser clip from the "Oprah's Next Chapter" episode airing Sunday, August 19, at 9/8c.

When speaking about Brown, the "Where Have You Been" singer appeared vulnerable, a striking contrast to the angst-fueled attitude she has championed in numerous  songs ("Russian Roulette," "Hard," "Man Down") she released since the incident.
Rihanna, Oprah
Also in the interview, which airs Sunday, the singer talks freely about her career, her family, the recent death of her grandmother and the price of fame. Winfrey also went to the singer's old neighborhood in Barbados to gain a better understanding of Rihanna's past.
"I went there with my own ideas about who she was, watching the videos and listening to her music," Winfrey said in the episode's trailer bout the interview. "I thought she was going to be kind of a badass, kind of a hard edged rocker, pop woman. Nothing could have been further from the truth ."